Brandt Snedeker birdied two of his final four holes to grab the lead after the first round of the Houston Open while Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka all struggled in the last tournament before next week’s Masters.
Meanwhile, Shane Lowry got off to a good start with a one under par round of 70 thanks to birdies at the second, sixth and 15th. Graeme McDowell – who will join Lowry at next week’s Masters – is at the same mark after the first round.
Pádraig Harrington is two shots further back after an oping round of 71.
Snedeker, who won the 2012 FedEx Cup, feasted on Memorial Park’s par fives, nailing birdies on all three of them behind some pinpoint accuracy off the tee to card a five-under 65 to sit two strokes ahead of six players.
“This course is a long, tough golf course, so to play well you need to take advantage of the scoring holes, which I did a great job of today,” he said.
The American said he was boosted by the fans in attendance. The tournament is the second to allow a limited number of fans to attend since golf came back from its Covid-19 shutdown in June.
“It’s great to hear some claps and people excited for good shots and some birdies,” said Snedeker, who is seeking his 10th career win on the Tour.
“That’s a big reason why I think I played well. I was excited to be out there and (had) been missing them, so glad to have them back.”
World number one Johnson, playing in his first tournament since testing positive for the disease and spending 11 days in isolation, had a stretch of three consecutive bogeys before making the turn and was forced to settle for a round of two-over 72.
Former world number one Spieth, seeking his first win since the 2017 British Open, went out in the morning wave and held a share of the lead through 12 holes before making two bogeys and two double-bogeys en route to a three-over 73.
Spieth’s playing partner Koepka mixed three birdies with three bogeys and one double bogey for a round of two-over 72.
“I hit it terrible today,” four-time major winner Koepka said.
“It’s funny because I’ve hit it so good the last couple weeks and so that was disappointing.”
Collated first round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Houston Open, Memorial Park GC, Texas, USA (USA unless stated, par 70):
65 Brandt Snedeker
67 Jason Day (Aus), Carlos Ortiz (Mex), Michael Thompson, Scottie Scheffler, Harold Varner III, Cameron Davis (Aus)
68 Adam Scott (Aus), Sepp Straka (Aut), Greg Chalmers (Aus), Scott Piercy, Kevin Streelman, Talor Gooch, Adam Long, Sam Burns
69 Scott Brown, Pat Perez, Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Matt Jones (Aus), Mark Hubbard, Tony Finau, Kristoffer Ventura (Nor), Denny McCarthy, Russell Henley, Shane Lowry (Irl), Patton Kizzire, Russell Knox (Sco), Corey Conners (Can)
70 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn), JT Poston, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Andrew Landry, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Aaron Wise, Kevin Chappell, Fabian Gomez (Arg), Keegan Bradley, Dawie Van Der Walt (Rsa), Scott Harrington, Martin Trainer, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa), Cameron Tringale
71 Charley Hoffman, Hudson Swafford, Austin Cook, Branden Grace (Rsa), Tom Lewis (Eng), Si Woo Kim (Kor), Doc Redman, Sean O'Hair, Isaiah Salinda, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa), Luke List, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Brian Harman, Maverick McNealy, James Hahn, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Erik Barnes, Pádraig Harrington (Irl)
72 Justin Harding (Rsa), Robby Shelton, Kelly Kraft, Stewart Cink, Lanto Griffin, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai), Martin Laird (Sco), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
73 Brian Stuard, Chris Kirk, Vaughn Taylor, Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover, David Hearn (Can), Nate Lashley, Jamie Lovemark, Tom Hoge, John Huh, Patrick Rodgers, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Jordan Spieth
74 Scott Stallings, Danny Lee (Nzl), Sam Fidone, Max Homa, Kevin Stadler, Ollie Schniederjans, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Bol Van Pelt, Camilo Villegas (Col), Luke Donald (Eng), Troy Merritt, Sungjae Im (Kor), Brice Garnett
75 Adam Schenk, Kramer Hickok, Andrew Putnam, Henrik Norlander (Swe), Beau Hossler, Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Wyndham Clark, Ted Potter, Jr., Michael Kim, Kevin Tway
76 Phil Mickelson, Xinjun Zhang (Chn), Sung Kang (Kor), Ryan Armour, Kyoung-hoon Lee (Kor), Graham DeLaet (Can), Bol Hoag, Will Gordon
77 D.A. Points, Hunter Mahan, Matthew NeSmith, Danny Willett (Eng), Tyler Duncan, Lee Westwood (Eng)
78 Jimmy Walker, Keith Mitchell
79 Alex Noren (Swe), Sam Ryder, Bronson Burgoon
80 Ben Willman (Eng)
81 Kyle Hogan
85 Grayson Murray
